Zoila Diaz
'''Zoila Diaz' is a main character and one of the titular protagonists on Devious Maids. Zoila works as a maid in the house of Genevieve Delatour, along with her daughter, Valentina, who, as she comes to learn, is in love with the Delatour's son, Remi. Zoila tries her best to keep her daughter from coming any closer to Remi, for she knows from experience - or believes, anyway - that rich boys never fall in love with "the help". However, and even though Zoila's heart is in the right place, Valentina's determination to break the employer/employee barrier is further fueled by her mother's attempts to stop her. Biography 'Early Life' When first working for Genevieve, she became close with her brother, Henri. They dated a while, and Zoila fell in love with him. Their romance didn't last, however, because Henri left her for a woman Cynthia who he ended up marrying. This left Zoila heartbroken, but then she met and married Pablo Diaz. They had one daughter, Valentina. 'Season 1' Zoila attends the funeral of her friend and fellow maid Flora and as she, her daughter Valentina and her friends leave the graveyard, Rosie suggests that they go to the police with what they know of Flora's death, but her friends ward her off of the thought. Zoila is later introduced as the maid of Genevieve Delatour, along with with her daughter, and she discovers her employer under the bed having swallowed a whole bottle of pills after the pool boy left her. Remi, Genevieve's son, comes to help, and Valentina suggests that he stay home instead of go to college and commute. This excites Genevieve so much that she offers to go the the hospital, and takes Zoila to help her put her make up on first. Later, Zoila is having lunch with her friends, and they invite new maid Marisol to their table and seem to hit it off with her... until the matter of Flora's murder arises and the other three leave suspiciously. When Zoila returns home, she sees that Valentina is flirting with Remi, and is less than happy. After work, Zoila goes shopping and returns home with a new outfit for Valentina. Her daughter is initially happy until she discovers that it's a stereotypical maid's outfit, wondering why her mother bought it. Zoila tells her daughter that it's her uniform and that she has to remember her place, assuring her that rich boys never fall in love with the help. When Zoila falls asleep, Valentina whips out her sewing kit and alters the dress to make her look sexy, and she is very happy when Remi approves. Later, when Zoila is once again having lunch with her friends, they once again invite Marisol over, but she is on her way somewhere, and so carries on walking. Valentina is really into Remi. And when she finds out that they both have a love for old movies in common, she finds herself meeting up with he and his friends at a local theater. When her mother Zoila finds out, she’s not amused. “He is your employer, not your friend,” she tells her. Trying to keep Valentina in her place, Zoila suggests that Genevieve throw a party for Remi and his friends so that Valentina will learn that she can’t mix business with pleasure. When some of Remi’s friends discover that Valentina is Remi’s maid, their interaction is immediately changed with distaste. Later, Valentina reveals to Genevieve her love for Remi — news which brings a smile to her face. Genevieve agrees to help Valentina tell Remi of the secret she’s been keeping for as long as she can remember. Zoila is upset when she finds out that Genevieve is helping Valentina win the heart of Remi. Zoila tells her employer that she and Valentina will not show up to work until she understands that both Remi and Valentina can’t be together. We learn that the reason why Zoila is against their relationship is because she had a relationship with Genevieve’s brother Henri until he was introduced to his now current wife Cynthia, a woman from similar background as Zoila’s. Zoila had her heart broken and has not gotten it over since and fears history will repeat itself with Valentina and Remi. Genevieve feels sorry because she was the one who introduced Henri to Cynthia. Zoila has had a heartbreaking past with Genevieve’s brother, Henri. When he stops by to visit, fond memories are returned. When she hears of the news that Henri and his wife are deciding to get a divorce, Zoila makes a loud statement — literally — by dropping a platter she was using to serve he and Genevieve tea. However, Zoila was brokenhearted after he left her once again. Moreover, she realized that she should let Valentina date whomever she wanted – even if it meant that Remi might break her heart. Genevieve and Zoila returning home from a shopping trip. Genevieve, as is her way, is overdramatically lamenting the fact that she is no longer a size zero. Unfortunately, she is about to discover that she has bigger problems – her fortune has been stolen and she and Remi are now penniless. She deals with this discovery far better than anyone would expect, and though she at first goes to Philippe, her ex-husband and Remi’s father, for financial help, she realizes that she does not want to resume a relationship with him just to be rich again. She and Zoila share an incredibly touching moment when Genevieve gives Zoila her wedding ring and promises to take care of her, because Zoila is the one person who has stuck by Genevieve all her life. Valentina tells Zoila that Remi is using drugs and Zoila in turn reveals that Remi has been in rehab before for a cocaine addiction. Zoila sits Remi down and tells him that though he has spent his life trying to be strong and take care of his mother, he needs somebody to take care of him sometimes too. She reveals that she knows he is doing drugs again and that she has packed his suitcase for rehab. Though he tries to protest, telling Zoila that he is her boss and she has no business interfering in his personal life, she calmly tells him that she has called his father and that though she may not be able to make him go to rehab, he certainly can. While all of Remi’s drug-related problems were occurring, Genevieve was on a cruise. Then, Zoila and Valentina discover Genevieve’s engagement to a 76 year old blind billionaire, who she she has convinced that she is 39. After some passive aggressive, double-entendre laden verbal sparring between Genevieve and Zoila, the gentleman in question asks Zoila how old Genevieve really is. When he finds out her real age, he wants to leave her. His main goal in life is to have a child, and he wants to a wife who is physically able to bear one. However, after Valentina and he have a discussion about love, he decides that he loves Genevieve enough to stay with her, as long as they find a surrogate to have his child. He wants to choose the woman whose egg will unite with his sperm. And the woman whose egg he wants is Valentina. Genevieve talks to Zoila before asking Valentina to donate one of her eggs. Zoila refuses. Zoila manipulates Genevieve into breaking up with her fiancé in order to get her own way and decides to sell the ring Genevieve had given her in order to pay for Valentina’s fashion education. Moreover, Genevieve discovers the truth and has to deal with Remi’s drug problem and her own failings as a mother. Remi is back from rehab. Everyone at the Delatour house is ecstatic except Valentina. She is apprehensive about seeing him again, telling Zoila that she hopes Remi does not hate her for being the catalyst that sent him there in the first place. Fortunately he does not, telling her that she saved his life and kissing her in front of his parents and her mother. Afterwards, he approaches Zoila, asking her is she disapproves of the fact that he is dating Valentina given that he is a drug addict. She does not and invites him to dinner with her and Pablo. When he arrives (a bottle of Scotch in tow), he accidentally reveals that he does not know Valentina’s last name. This upsets her even more than her father’s terrible jokes, and she pitches a fit in the middle of dinner, ranting at Remi for knowing nothing about her when she knows literally everything about him. Zoila and Valentina have a conversation about Valentina’s fear that she will always, on some level, be “the help” to Remi, and Zoila proposes a simple solution to her problem: quit. Genevieve is hot and heavy with her ex-husband, Philippe, even going so far as to open a bottle of wine herself so that they can have a mid-night refreshment. Unfortunately, Zoila does not approve of Genevieve’s rekindled relationship, and schemes to uncover Philippe’s still cheating ways by enlisting her friend Margo Grayson to flirt with him. When he gives Margo his personal number, Zoila confronts Genevieve about it – at her and Philippe’s re-engagement celebration. Genevieve tells Zoila that she is still going to marry Philippe. But, upon learning of his father’s flirtation with Margo, Remi, dealing with the fact that he is a suspect in Flora’s death and covering up for who he thinks was her killer, punches him in the face and whispers something into his ear. It appears that Philippe Delatour may have a lot to do with Flora’s murder. In any case, the man about whom Genevieve speaks so glowingly raped Flora before her death. Philippe confides this to Remi when Remi confronts him about his relationship with Flora, and Remi is disgusted. Remi decides to apply to be an assistant in foreign aid medical program in order to get away from his toxic family and asks Valentina to go with him. Zoila forbids Valentina from running away with Remi. Trying to control her adult daughter, Zoila explained to Remi that she wants Valentina to live her own dreams and not Remi’s. She wants her daughter to focus on her passion for fashion and not her passion for her boyfriend. Remi followed Zoila’s instructions from last week and left for Africa without saying goodbye to anyone including Valentina. Both Valentina and Genevieve are crushed. Over lunch, Valentina expresses her insecurities about her relationship with Remi to Zoila, saying that she fears that he really will always see her as a maid. This prompts Zoila to tell her the truth about his departure, and she is understandably upset. Later, Zoila, Rosie, and Carmen help Marisol prove Philippe murdered Flora. 'Season 2' Three months after Rosie's arrest, Marisol arrives at her trial to be able to stay in the United States. Marisol sits down next to her friends, Carmen and Zoila. The two women ask Marisol if anything happened the night before with Nicholas. The former maid exclaims that he proposed, and she then begins to show off her huge engagement ring. Carmen is surprised and tells Marisol it's not real, but Marisol states that it is. Zoila cracks a joke and the three women start laughing. Judge D. Daves yells out, asking why there are people laughing in his courtroom. Marisol, Carmen, and Zoila immediately go silent. Rosie ends up being released, but has to return to court in six months, pleading her case for asylum. The four friends are then reunited. Later, Zoila tells Genevieve that she needs to drop the “grieving widow routine and go shopping”. Genevieve receives a letter from Remi, and rushes off and won’t tell Zoila what is in the letter. Later, Genevieve finds Valentina staying in a run down apartment, because Remi wrote that she had come back from Africa without him. He decided to stay in the Congo another year. Valentina didn't tell her mom that she is home because she is still mad at her for encouraging Remi to go to Africa. Genevieve reunites Zoila and Valentina. Zoila apologizes profusely, and then tells her to go get her stuff and come home. Valentina informs her she isn't coming home, she is going to live with Genevieve. However, thanks to Zoila, Valentina can't live with her former boss. Zoila is furious when she finds out her daughter Valentina is working as a live-in maid now for Evelyn and Adrian. Also, her marriage starts falling apart when Pablo grows tired of her being so controlling. Later, Zoila arrives at the Powell house and barges and announces to Valentina that she has come to pack her bags and take her home. Valentina informs her she won’t be returning and to stop trying to control her. When Valentina turns around Zoila steals a Faberge egg off the counter and slips it into her purse, while Ethan the pool boy quietly watches. Later on, Ethan tells Valentina about this and says that Zoila most likely did it so the Powell's would think Valentina did it and then fire her. When Zoila arrives at her home, her husband Pablo is furious. Valentina called him and told him that Zoila stole the Faberge Egg. He yells at her and tells her he's tired of her trying to control his and Valentina’s life. That night, Zoila returns home and finds that Pablo has packed a bag. He says he needs some space and he's “taking a break” and moving into a small apartment. He promises her it's going to be good for both of them. Trivia *Zoila is the only lead maid to be absent for an episode. Gallery This is a gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character. 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